A Gust of Wind
by ObsidianWind
Summary: Olivia Marin, one of many students at Ouran Academy, has never had a normal life, considerably because of her wealthiness, but in a couple other ways, as well. When her close friends, the Hitachiin twins, drag her to the Host Club one day, her life is changed forever, in more ways than one. For better or for worse? Well... that's debatable. Takashi/OC
1. In the Beginning

The noise was absolutely unbearable. The screaming was much too loud this time, and they had been arguing for over an hour and a half. A new record.

Finally, Olivia had had enough. She threw back the covers of her bed and stomped irritatedly to her door, throwing it open with a flourish.

"_Hey_!" the girl screeched over her parents' bickering. Silence settled thickly over the living room as her parents stared up at their daughter from where she stood, glaring over the railing down at them. Olivia's mother held the television remote halfway to her head, as if she were about to throw it, and her father's fingers were curled into white-knuckled fists. "We are inside," Olivia continued, smiling sweetly. "And, therefore, we are going to speak with our indoor voices. Goodnight mother, father." Without another word, she turned and marched back to her room, shutting the door behind her.

* * *

"Again?" Aki, Olivia's best friend, asked upon noticing her friend's exhausted expression and the dark bags drooping wearily under her dark brown eyes. Olivia nodded as they took their seats in first period literature, maneuvering their bulging yellow dresses—the school uniform—into their chairs.

"Started at ten and continued for an hour and a half. When I went out to tell them to stuff it, Mom had the TV remote and Dad looked ready to punch her."

Aki cringed. "It's getting worse, Liv."

"I know," the brunette groaned, running her fingers through the silver streak in her side-swept bangs. She closed her eyes and sighed. "But what am I supposed to do? I don't want them to split, but if this keeps up, I'm never going to get any sleep."

"It's only a matter of time before they start beating on each other," Aki pointed out, and Olivia glared at her friend through her fingers.

Before any more could be said on the matter, the bell rang and classroom chatter ceased as the teacher entered the room, smacking the chalkboard sternly to get his class's attention.

_We'll talk later,_ Aki mouthed pointedly to her friend before turning her attention to the board. Olivia rolled her eyes.

_Shoot me._

* * *

"_Hello_," someone said smoothly, sliding their arms around Olivia's neck in some sort of hug from behind.

The girl stiffened, frowning in irritation. "Not now, Hikaru. I have to get to lunch."

"Aw," he pouted, retracting his arms and moving to stand in front of her. "But you're my favorite person ever."

"Hikaru, your brother is your favorite person ever. Stop sucking up. Where is Kaoru, anyway?" Olivia asked, raising an eyebrow to emphasize her question. One red-headed twin was never seen without the other.

Hikaru shrugged. "I told him to go on ahead with Haruhi to lunch."

"And you aren't with them because..." Olivia began to trudge again towards the large cafeteria of Ouran High, Hikaru trailing along beside her with his hands stuffed into the pockets of his very expensive Ouran-regulation black slacks. She wished for the millionth time since the beginning of highschool that Aki had the same lunch period as her.

The boy increased his pace so he could walk backwards in front of Olivia. "I came to beg you _again_ to come to the Host Club after school today." When the brunette stubbornly shook her head, he continued. "_Please_, Livi? You're like a part of the family. It would mean everything to Kaoru and I."

"'Kaoru and me'," Olivia corrected automatically.

Hikaru waved his hand dismissively. "Technicalities."

"You know how I feel about the Host Club and its ways, Hikaru. You know I'm not one of those girls that likes to waste her time fawning over guys that only play with my feelings the same way they play with every other girl's. I'm sorry, but that's just not the way I roll." And it was true, too. She had heard the gossip, the same five boys and the girl-undercover-as-a-boy every single time. It was sickening.

Hikaru groaned. "Come on, Liv, you know it's not like that. I've explained this so many times it's not even laughable anymore."

"And yet you've never managed to convince me. Remind me again what I get out of this?"

"You're worse then Kyoya sometimes," Hikaru muttered, glowering in irritation. "You get to have some fun with the boys that are practically your brothers, considering we let you stay over every time you get fed up with your parents."

Olivia sighed, but didn't bother arguing. It was true, of course. The Hitachiins lived within fifteen minutes' walking distance of her house, whereas Aki lived a good half-hour drive through Tokyo, in a modern condo in the middle of the busy city. Olivia had first become acquainted with the twins during a greeting from their family when she and her parents had first moved to Tokyo from their home in Hokkaido. Although Olivia was American in both looks and heritage, she had lived in Japan since she was very small, so she was much more accustomed to Japanese standards and culture, though she did have an appreciation for the English language, which she spoke fluently.

She had moved to Tokyo three years ago, the summer before sixth grade, and had been good friends with the Hitachiin twins since, though she had been closer with Aki since before then, because the girls had known each other since they were children. The friendship had originally been arranged by their parents so as to create a friendly alliance between the computer business run by Olivia's family and the general electronics business owned by Aki's family, but had since grown into a genuine friendship between the young girls.

The twins had been bugging at Olivia to come to the Host Club, the club of filthy rich young men who entertained filthy rich young women, after school since the beginning of this year when the club had been formed, but she had consistently refused.

"If I agree to go this _one time_," she said reluctantly, halting as they reached the doorway of the cafeteria, "will you stop pestering me about it?"

"Sure, if you agree to come this _one time_," Hikaru teased, smirking mischievously.

"_Fine,_" Olivia hissed. "Now, if you don't mind, I am going to go find some form of caffeine to make sure I don't pass out before I can get home and take a nap."

* * *

Olivia frowned, knowing that Aki would be upset that she hadn't been alerted beforehand of her best friend's giving-in of the begging, as she sludged across Ouran's campus to the third Music Room.

"If they don't kill me, I'll probably commit suicide," she muttered, her freckled face radiating her reluctance to even be walking in this general direction. The parking lot—and her precious Daytona Blue Mercedes Benz SLS AMG Coupe—were almost exactly in the opposite direction.

Even though she'd never actually been there, Olivia knew exactly where Music Room Three was located, so that she could avoid it at all costs. Considering the vastness of Ouran High School's campus, though, this came as a great advantage, as the brunette reached the Music Room in under half the time it would take any other student who had, in fact, never even been in that building before.

When she reached the broad, intricately detailed doors of the Music Room, Olivia halted abruptly, her hands hovering over the door handles. This was not something she was sure she wanted to do.

_Oh, grow up. You promised. It's just one day. You can do this,_ she thought sternly, forcing her hands down on to the door handles and pulling the giant slabs of synthetic wood open on their hinges.

"I'm sorry, the Host Club doesn't begin for another half hour," someone said politely. Olivia looked around, finally connecting the voice to Tamaki Suoh, a blond, half-French boy with vibrant indigo eyes and a very romantic personality. The majority of the Host Club's fangirls loved him best.

_He must not be having a very good day,_ Olivia observed, _if he's not all over me by now._ She glanced around the room, accounting for all of the hosts, save for one: Haruhi Fujioka, the girl—posing secretly to the rest of the school outside of the Host Club as a boy—that Tamaki was unknowingly madly in love with. Her absence must have been what was keeping him down.

"The twins bugged me to come, so I came early," she said resiliently, spotting the two demons sprawled over two of the plush couches, fingers flying over the buttons of their Gameboys. "I hate you, you know," she said pointedly, plopping tiredly on to Hikaru's stomach. He didn't flinch at her extra weight—though, because of her small height and fast metabolism, she had never weighed over one-hundred-five pounds in her life—as she did this often.

Not removing his gaze from the intense boss fight, he replied, "You'll thank me later."

"Sure, sure," she said, waving her hand dismissively.

"Would you mind introducing your friend to us, boys?" Kyoya asked, glasses flashing as he typed away on his laptop in the corner a few feet away. Olivia snorted. As if he didn't already know who she was.

Kaoru spoke up, mirroring his brother and neither removing his eyes from his screen nor pausing his game. He spoke in a rehearsed monotone. "Guys, this is Olivia, close family friend and sister for all practical purposes. Hurt her and we'll kill you. Olivia, you know the guys."

And she did. Even though she had never formally met any of them, except for Haruhi, once, a few months back. The twins filled her in on all the club's daily drama, and she felt she knew each of the boys personally, though, with the Hitachiins, she really _did_ know them personally. She had always been closer to Hikaru, though.

Olivia had already formed an opinion on each of the hosts, though she knew this was unfair providing that she had only actually met and conversed with Haruhi. Her belief was that Kyoya was a creepy son-of-a-bitch that would do anything for the promotion of his business—whether that be the Host Clubs or his family's—and seriously needed to get out more. Tamaki was annoying and needed to stop being so clingy; a psychologist would do him good. The twins, obviously, she got along well with. Hani, the small blond boy who carried a stuffed rabbit with him at all times, was a little overly sweet and innocent. He had to be plotting something. Mori, the tall, dark-haired, stoic boy was... well, just that. Tall, dark-haired, and stoic; he didn't talk much and therefore, not many people knew a whole lot about him, especially the twins. He wasn't mentioned often. And, finally, Haruhi.

Haruhi was _awesome._

Olivia idolized Haruhi for her brilliance, straight-forwardness, kind and generous ways, and the ability to stand up for herself, those she cared about, and what was right.

"She knows us?" Hani asked curiously, tilting his head in confusion.

"These two practically provide a daily play-by-play on all your antics," Olivia shrugged, beginning to fidget uncomfortably in her uniform. "Um, do you guys mind if I use the changing rooms? I would really like to change out of this stupid uniform before I burst into flames."

Hikaru jerked his head in the direction of the rooms. "That way. Haruhi usually uses the second room on the right."

Olivia nodded and stood, slinging her sandy-brown messenger bag over her shoulder and making her way towards the changing room. A few minutes later, feeling much more free in shorts, a cream-colored tank, and a flowing navy-blue-and-white top, she emerged again from the small room.

_Much better,_ she thought, twirling her silver streak and dropping right back down on to Hikaru's stomach.

"I have to get up in, like, two minutes," he informed her.

"Yeah? So? That's your problem."

He shrugged. "I guess, but you do know that your removal will not be any trouble at all."

Olivia grinned. "That's what you said last time."

"Yeah, Hikaru, she _did_ get you pretty good with that peanut butter," Kaoru piped up from his place a few feet away. "It took your forever to get everything out of your hair."

Hikaru paused in his game to glare over at his brother. "It's not like you helped me out at all."

"Sorry, bro, I was too busy laughing at you."

"Thanks, dude."

"No problem."

"Boys," Tamaki interrupted in his sulky voice. "It's almost time for the Host Club to start and Haruhi isn't here yet."

"She probably got held up after class talking to the teacher or something," the twins harmonized, shutting off their games at the mention of the Host Club's opening.

"She _is_ normally here on time, though... What do you think, Usa-chan?" Hani asked his rabbit, looking down at the stuffed animal in his arms. He waited for a moment before looking back up at the rest of the club members, informing them, "Usa-chan says she thinks Haru-chan's bag fell out the window again, into the fountains. She'll be here in a couple more seconds, 'kay, Tama-chan?" The small boy smiled charmingly, giggling a little.

The doors the the Music Room flew open not two moments later, revealing a panting, slightly-sweaty girl in the classic Ouran boy's uniform, the pant legs rolled up to her knees. In her hands dangled a pair of shiny black dress shoes; her feet were bare and covered in a slight sheen of water. Her dark brown hair was cropped short, causing her to look a little more masculine, but what gave her away, in Olivia's opinion, were her large, innocent brown eyes.

"See?" Hani said, hugging Usa-chan tightly to his chest as he smiled sweetly. "What did Usa-chan tell you?"


	2. The Higher Happiness of Lower Standards

"How..." Olivia gaped, her eyes darting rapidly between the stuffed rabbit and the dripping girl in the doorway. "How did... How did the rabbit know that?"

"Usa-chan knows lots of stuff," Hani giggled, tossing the stuffed animal up in the air before catching it again.

Hikaru sat up, causing Olivia to slide from his stomach to his lap. "That," he said, pointing to Hani, "That is creepy."

Tamaki stared at Haruhi for a moment, wondering how she had managed to drop her bag in the fountain _again_, before he charged at her. "_Haruhi_! My poor daughter, you're all wet! Daddy was so worried about you!"

Haruhi scowled, pushing Tamaki away from her. "Get off me, sempai." Tamaki pouted, but did as he was told.

Rolling her eyes, Olivia leaned back on the couch and breathed deeply.

_He's so annoying,_ she thought to herself.

"Best get dried off, Haruhi. Club is about to start," Kyoya pointed out without looking up from his laptop. The girl glared at him and dropped her bag with the rest of the Host Club's and Olivia's in a small pile at the edge of the room.

"Oh, hey, Olivia," she said, waving as she noticed her classmate still seated on top of Hikaru.

"Hey," Olivia replied boredly, raising a hand in a half-hearted half-wave.

"What are you doing here?" Haruhi asked, starting a conversation as she waited for the last few minutes of free-time to run out.

Olivia shrugged. "Hikaru begged me to come this one time, so I agreed so long as he would stop bugging me about it. By the way," she added, turning to look at Hikaru. He raised a curious eyebrow. "What exactly am I supposed to do while you're hosting?"

"You could come eat cake with me and Takashi!" Hani interjected, bouncing happily towards the couch the twin and brunette were seated on. Olivia considered it, rolling her eyes up to the ceiling in the habit she'd developed whilst thinking.

"Yeah, you could always do that," Kaoru agreed, pulling himself to his feet.

She shrugged again. "Yeah, okay. I am kind of hungry."

"Yay!" Hani cheered, tossing Usa-chan into the air again in celebration. "Isn't that great, Takashi?"

The tall statue of a man hummed in agreement, giving a small nod. He stood near the small blond boy, and Olivia wondered idly that if a train tried to run over him, it would actually be able to. It certainly didn't look like it.

"You'd best go sit over at that table," Haruhi told Olivia, pointing to said table. "Host Club is going to start in just a second."

Olivia nodded and stood, smacking Hikaru's head on the way up and Kaoru's head as she passed him on her way to the small table.

"Ow!" they whined, but she just grinned and kept walking.

* * *

Olivia stared, her fork halfway to her open mouth, in shock, as Hani—seventeen-year-old Hani, who shouldn't be able to eat more than a slice and a half of cake—finished his first whole cake and started on his second.

_I thought the twins were joking when they said he could eat a whole cake in one sitting!_

She looked over to Mori, who sat next to them, and saw him watching his cousin with an amused gleam in his dark eyes and a hint of a smile twitching almost unseen at the corners of his lips.

"Can he always do that?" Olivia whispered, dark brown eyes still wide with shock. Mori chuckled quietly and nodded in response. "...Weird."

"Livi-chan, how do you like your classes?" Hani asked cheerfully, as if he hadn't heard the short one-sided conversation between his cousin and the first-year.

"They're alright," Olivia replied, a little alarmed by the affectionate honorific. She took another bite of the rich lemon cake, trying hard not to show in her expression how wonderfully delicious it tasted.

"What's your favorite?"

"Oh, um... English."

"Are you good at it?"

"**Why, I speak it fluently, good sir,**" she responded in English, lips twitching a little at his surprised expression. Hani's face broke into a wide, excited grin.

"That's so cool, Livi-chan!"

She laughed. "Thanks, Hani. What about you, what's your favorite class?"

"Trigonometry!"

Olivia raised her eyebrows in surprise; she'd been expecting something more along the lines of "Lunch" or "Home Economics." "_Really_?"

Hani nodded enthusiastically. "I love numbers—but not as much as I love cake, and Usa-chan!"

Olivia frowned as she remembered her failing grades in math. "I'm not too great at math." She sighed, remembering the pop-quiz earlier in fourth period. "I think I failed the test we took today."

"I can help with that," Haruhi broke in as she paused beside the table with a tray of teacups. "I'm pretty good at math. If you're having trouble, I could always help you study."

Olivia considered the offer briefly before accepting graciously. "That would be amazing, Haruhi, thank you. I could really use the help."

"No problem. Why don't you just some home with me after school, and we can go over what was on the quiz."

Olivia nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, great! We'll just do that."

"Sounds like a plan." Haruhi smiled.

* * *

"I don't" –_whack_–"understand" –_whack– _"this bullshit!" Olivia exclaimed in frustration, slamming her head repeatedly on to the table in the front of her. None of this made sense! "Graphing this shit isn't going to get me anywhere in life, anyway! That's what computers are for!"

Haruhi waited patiently for her new-found friend to calm down and stop causing harm to both herself and the dining room table. There would probably be a dent where Olivia had rhythmically pounded her forehead into the wood.

When Olivia had first entered Haruhi's small apartment, her mouth had dropped slightly open in silent surprise. The place was small just as she'd expected, yes, but it was also surprisingly clean, and rather homey. It was the kind of place Olivia would want to come home to, the kind that always seemed so welcoming and at peace with the world, accepting of whatever life would throw. In a way, the small apartment had a life of its own. It was exactly the opposite of the cold, drafty emptiness of her family's sprawling mansion.

The door was positioned right next to the kitchen, which was off to the left, painted a happy light yellow with white cabinets and utilities; a red hand-towel draped itself over the oven door, rumpled in a way that suggested frequent use. To the right of the front door was a coat hanger, which currently held the jackets of both girls, and a couple of stylish coats that looked to belong to a grown woman—of which Haruhi happened to know for a fact was Haruhi's father, since her mother was dead and her father was a drag-queen of sorts, as far as the twins had informed her.

The living room, which began a few short feet in front of the door, wasn't very big, holding an average-sized old television, a coffee table, and a futon, with only a little room to spare. A droopy hanging plant hung cheerfully in the corner, offering dozens of small white flowers.

On the right wall of the living room was a short hallway, which held four doors; a small linen closet, the door to Haruhi's room, the door to her father's room, and the door to the shared bathroom. Olivia hadn't been in any of those rooms, but she guessed that they weren't very big, probably just large enough to get by comfortably.

When she'd felt the cheerful, welcoming aura of the single-family apartment, Olivia had idly wished that she could live like this.

"Are you done?" Haruhi asked, a hint of a laugh underlying her patient tone.

"No." Olivia frowned, slamming her head down one more time before sitting up straight, taking a deep breath, and saying, "Now I'm done."

"Why don't we take a break?"

Olivia nodded, running her fingers through the silver streak in her bangs the way she did when she was frustrated or nervous. "Do you have any food?"

"Um..." Haruhi stood and opened the refrigerator, peering inside. "We've got some onigiri leftover from last night. Do you want some?"

"Yes, please." Olivia took the cold rice ball that Haruhi handed to her and took a grateful bite out of it. "Oh, wow," she mumbled around her mouthful of rice. "This is really good!"

Haruhi shrugged, swallowing her own bite. "It's one of my mom's old recipes. She was an amazing cook."

"So are you."

Haruhi shrugged modestly. "I'm alright. The Host Club seems to like the food we've got when they barge in here, so I suppose I must not be _so_ bad," she joked.

Olivia laughed. "No kidding. So what's the deal with Hani-sempai? He eats enough cake in five minutes to feed four different armies!"

"Yeah, he's always been like that, ever since he decided to stop depriving himself of sweets. My theory is that he's making up for all the cake he could've eaten when he was so focused at being 'strong'." Olivia raised a curious eyebrow, signifying for Haruhi to go on. The twins hadn't told her this story. "When he was younger, Hani-sempai spent all of his time and energy trying to live up to his father's definition of 'strong', so that he would be worthy of taking over the family's national Judo chain when he's old enough. He wouldn't eat sweets, and he locked up all of his cute and fluffy things so that he wouldn't be tempted. I guess eventually, he went to his father and asked him what being strong truly was. As I've heard it, they fought so that Mr. Haninozuka could show him, but Hani-sempai beat him without breaking a sweat. He's been the way he is now ever since, though his little brother seems to be convinced that he's an alien."

"An _alien_?" Olivia repeated incredulously, eyes widening. She choked a little on her rice in surprise. Haruhi nodded, her lips twitching into an amused grin.

"Yasuchika seems to believe that the amount of cake Hani-sempai eats at one time is inhuman, and therefore he must be an alien."

Olivia nodded, eyes rolling up to the ceiling in thought. "Sounds plausible to me," she said finally, and both girls burst into laughter.


	3. Paper Planes

Olivia's test laptop gave a satisfyingly loud snap as she pushed the screen down over the keyboard, the first done with her test as always. It had been a few pretty simple fixes—though most pretty simple fixes seemed to stump the rest of the class, for reasons Olivia couldn't even begin to fathom—a little messing with a couple of the hard-drives, and the computer's user settings had to be set up while it was up and running, and then she was done. Easy as that.

She glanced boredly at the clock bolted over the door, which emitted a loud, annoying tick every time the minute-hand moved. There were still seventeen minutes left in class. Olivia glanced around at who she called her "geek buddies," which basically consisted of a small group of other computer geeks who still had yet to match her extensive knowledge of the complex yet somewhat simple machines.

The brunette jumped when a mini-paper-plane sailed over her shoulder to land on her desk; she turned to crane her neck to get a look at who had sent the note. A black-haired boy with almost translucent skin and dark bags under stormy eyes shielded by wire-rimmed glasses smirked a little as her eyes landed on him.

Arashi, one of her closer geek-friends. Olivia smirked in return and turned back to her desk, glancing at the teacher to make sure he wasn't paying attention; indeed, her sensei's focus remained on his own computer screen, his thin nose wrinkled slightly in focus. Olivia nodded in satisfaction and unfolded the note, assured that the sensei would not remember his class until the bell rang at the end of the period.

_Are you for real? You can't be done already,_ the note read in Arashi's sloppy, careless scrawl. Olivia held her breath as she suppressed a laugh.

Her friends had always been jealous of the ease at which computer technology came to her. Fact was, that was just the family business. She'd been able to rip apart and rebuild a computer by the time she was seven, and have it working better than it had in the first place by the time she was done.

_It's not my fault you have problems with the RAM,_ Olivia wrote in reply, knowing she wouldn't have to tell her friend that she was teasing for him to know it. She refolded the note, checked again that the teacher wasn't looking, and turned to toss it back to Arashi. After months of practice, she had perfected the art of constructing and setting to flight paper airplanes, particularly small ones good for passing notes, so the plane landed easily on Arashi's desk, with not so much as a wobble on the trip there.

It was stupid, but Olivia was proud of the little things she had perfected, like paper airplanes.

She watched as Arashi swiftly unfolded the note, eyes flicking over the paper for a moment before scribbling a reply and refolding it to send it back.

"That's not a note, I hope, Mr. Yamamoto," the sensei's stern voice said abruptly from the front of the room. Arashi's face heated slightly and his hand disappeared under his desk along with the note. A moment later, his hand appeared again, almost unnoticeable, back upon the desk, with no note.

"I don't have a note, sir," Arashi said innocently, widening his eyes slightly for effect.

"Stand up, Yamamoto," Sensei sighed, pushing himself up from his chair and making his way down the rows of desks towards the pale boy. Arashi stood without question. When the teacher reached Arashi's desk, he said, "Kindly empty your pockets."

Arashi obediently turned his pockets inside-out, revealing only a fortune-cookie wrapper; Olivia resisted the urge to laugh. The sensei sighed, ran his hand through his graying hair, and said nothing, turning back to the front of the classroom. He'd made it two feet before he stopped, having heard a quiet noise.

Slowly, he turned back to face Olivia's friend. At Arashi's feet was the paper airplane, having fallen through the leg of his slacks and made a scuffing noise as it tumbled to the tile floor. The sensei stooped to pick it up and read over it, recognizing his best student's handwriting immediately along with Arashi's.

Without looking at either of his students, he turned back to the front of the room and begun walking back to his chair.

"Detention, Mr. Yamamoto and Miss Marin."

_Shit._

* * *

"Oh, hey, Livi-chan!" Hani exclaimed cheerfully as he saw her trudging towards the Computer Engineering classroom after school.

"Hi," she said in a sulky voice, raising her hand half-heartedly as she pouted. It wasn't that she really minded detention so much as that it was _so boring._

"What's wrong?" the small blond questioned, halting in front of her in concern. Takashi towered over the both of them behind Hani, dark eyes silently probing Olivia's lighter ones in a quieter repetition of the question.

Struggling to ignore the shivers running up her arms at Takashi's intense stare, Olivia mumbled, "Detention in Computer Engineering."

"_Really_?" Hani gasped, suddenly sounding excited. "Wow, Livi-chan, me and Takashi didn't know you were into computers! Are you good with them?"

"Well, kind of," Olivia laughed, reaching up to rub a few silver strands of hair through her fingers. "It's my family business. My dad and I are both kind of geeks; I've been able to reconstruct a computer since I was five, and had them working better than they started when I was seven."

Hani's eyes exploded to sizes that would rival Dobby's, and Takashi's eyebrows raised a little as his own dark eyes widened just the slightest bit. Olivia Marin did not seem like that kind of girl he would have pegged for a computer geek. Why hadn't Kyoya shared this with them?

"Um... what?" Olivia asked, shifting her weight nervously from foot to foot. Being into computers wasn't weird, was it? Takashi was kind of giving her a look...

_I mean, I know I'm a computer geek, but it's not like I go around rubbing it in people's faces and hacking into government files and such... not that I couldn't, but that's beside the point..._

"Go to your class."

Olivia was shocked into absolute silence, both in outward expression and inward thoughts. His voice was so deep; it sounded just like the rumbling of thunder while the storm is still in the distance. It sent shivers down her spine and electric snaps across her palms as his dark eyes bore deep into hers.

"O-okay," she stuttered out, keeping her gaze locked on Takashi's for a moment longer before stumbling away. She kept going until she rounded a corner.

_Oh my god... his **voice**..._ Olivia pressed her back to the wall and scrubbed at her face with her hands. _What did he do to me?_ She shook her head to clear the mist. _You must have imagined it. Go to sleep earlier tonight._

* * *

"You're late, Miss Marin," Suzuki Sensei scolded Olivia as she crossed the threshold to the Computer Engineering classroom, exactly half a second before the bell rang, announcing the beginning of the detention period. Takashi's intervention in the conversation had saved her another detention.

_I wonder if that's why he said it?_

"Yeah, I'm sorry, Sensei. It won't happen again. I didn't get enough sleep last night and made a wrong turn..." Olivia explained between pants. She had sprinted the last couple of hallways in order to reach the room on time.

Sensei waved his hand dismissively, motioning for Olivia to take a seat beside a sheepish-looking Arashi in the front row of desks, and she complied with a questioning raised eyebrow at her friend. He just shrugged in reply, glancing away. For some reason, he seemed reluctant to meet her gaze.

_Why won't he make eye contact?_

Suzuki stood squarely in front of his two students, his arms crossed over his chest as he studied them for a moment. Finally, he opened his mouth to speak.

"Well, Arashi, as I've already said what I wanted to you, I suppose you can go."

"_What_?" Olivia cried in surprise and indignation. Suzuki Sensei gave her a look that said, _Shut up, I'll get to you._

"Thank you, Sensei," Arashi mumbled, staring at his feet as he bowed awkwardly and left the room.

Once the door had shut quietly behind Arashi, Olivia crossed her arms defiantly and glared at her teacher.

"What was that about? I thought this was _detention._ Why does he get a free pass?" she demanded, resisting the urge to tug angrily at her own hair.

Her sensei sighed. "Olivia, I'll let you go as soon as I finish talking to you. Now, do you know what you're in here for?"

"Passing notes in class," she replied immediately, wanting to get this over-with as soon as possible.

"And what were the notes about?"

"Arashi didn't believe that I had finished so early. He probably thought I was cheating or something."

"And what did you tell him?"

Olivia snorted. "You read the note; these are stupid questions. Next?"

Suzuki smiled. "I've got all the time in the world, Miss Marin. Kindly answer my question."

"I just teased him about how slow he is," she huffed impatiently, puffing out her cheeks in an effort not to get snappy.

"Good," her sensei nodded approvingly. "And can you tell me what he wrote in reply."

She rolled her eyes. "No, you took it before he could pass it back. Would you mind telling me?"

Her sensei outright laughed in her face, as she knew he would. "Tell you what he said? You wanna know, go ask him yourself. You'd have an interesting conversation together, I'm sure. For now, though, Miss Marin, I'd like to make it clear that if I catch you two passing notes again in my class, I'll have you both playing janitor until midnight."

Olivia knew Suzuki Sensei too well to assume he was kidding, so she just nodded and sighed out a breathy, "Yes, sir. May I leave now?"

"I don't see why not."

She stood immediately. Just as she was about to shut the door, Suzuki called her back in, and she stuck her head around the doorframe.

"Yes?"

Suzuki Sensei stood beside his desk, holding the folded up note, an amused twinkle in his dark blue eyes and a smile creeping up on his aging features.  
"Paper planes?"

Olivia gave a toothy grin.

"Yes, sir. Paper planes."

* * *

When Olivia thought she would get to sleep earlier that night, she was sorely mistaken.

They were arguing again—third fight of the week. How many days into the week were they? Two. The arguments, of course, were escalating and becoming more and more frequent. Louder, too. Olivia spent a lot more time at the twins' house.

Tonight, unfortunately, looked like it was going to be one of those nights.

She lost her patience around midnight and climbed out from under her warm covers, angrily snatching her backpack from the foot of her bed and stuffing her toiletries—travel toiletries that she kept close-by at all times for nights like this—and shoved them into the first pocket she opened, not paying attention to which one it was. She grabbed her cellphone from her bedside table along with the charger and stuffed the latter into her backpack as well. A few more things were added, such as her allergy medications, multi-vitamin pills, and homework left on her desk.

Olivia walked straight out of her room, down the stairs, and out the door, still in her plaid pajama pants and an over-sized T-shirt. She wasn't surprised when her parents took no notice.

It was drizzling outside. Normally it would have annoyed Olivia, but at the moment, it felt good, helping to cool down her anger at her parents. She pulled out her cellphone, sending a group-text to the twins.

_I'm coming over._


End file.
